IEEE Std 1780-2022
IEEE Standard for Specifying Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs)
The Gyro and Accelerometer Panel (GAP) of the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society (AESS) have completed a significant milestone with the publication of IEEE Std 1780TM-2022, IEEE Standard for Specifying Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs). The IEEE standard was approved on February 02, 2022, by the IEEE Standards Association (SA) Standards Board and published on April 22, 2022. The standard was developed by a diverse team of industry and government experts, under the leadership of Mr. Randy Curey, GAP Chair, and Mr. Jason Bingham, Working Group Chair. The updated standard provides the inertial navigation community an outline for developing an inertial measurement unit specification document, guidance for tailoring the specification, and offers a selection of specifications relevant to the community’s particular application. In addition, the standard offers common terminology and typical units, ensuring consistency among users and producers, when specifying the IMU.
The typical IMU is comprised of inertial sensors mounted along three orthogonal axes, with accelerometers that measure linear motion and gyroscopes that measure angular motion. IMUs are used in almost every technology across both industry and government, including in the navigation of land, air, and underwater vehicles, oil and gas drilling, farming, military missiles and munitions, robotics, cellular phones, fitness trackers, and drones, to name a few. This is a small sample of a growing list of industries and their applications that utilize IMUs, which makes development and maintenance of a standard specifying IMUs critical. With the ever-expanding proliferation of IMUs across industry and government, the timely arrival of the IEEE Std 1780TM-2022 will, without doubt, make a direct impact to support advancing IMU technology in the inertial navigation community and beyond.